Gingerbread House
As always, all credit goes to the WTB writers, cast, producers and staff. This takes place a few days before Christmas season 8…
Angela, Mona and Samantha were sitting in the living room, Angela finishing wrapping Christmas presents. The fireplace was aglow and the tree was decorated beautifully. Christmas music could be heard playing softly in the background.
"There! The last present wrapped! Now, to clean up this mess!" said Angela as she gathered the scraps of wrapping paper. Just then, Tony and Jonathan walked in the door.
"Hello family! Guess what I bought at the store?" said Tony enthusiastically.
"Ingredients to make double fudge walnut brownies?" asked Angela. "The new leather jacket I saw in the store you said was way too expensive but then you had a change of heart?" asked Samantha. "Some sexy lingerie?" asked Mona.
"No, definitely no, and ewwww Mona! No, I bought us stuff to make homemade gingerbread houses! I've got the graham crackers, the candy and ingredients for the icing! We can spend tonight making the houses! There should be enough for two houses actually. We can have a contest! What do you all say?" shouted Tony.
"Yes I'm in Tony! That sounds wonderful! We can break up into teams! Guys versus girls!"
said Angela.
"No way!" shouted Jonathan. "That's a hard pass from me too" said Samantha.
"Hey! Wait! Why aren't you going to join us? I was hoping this could be a new fun family tradition for us!" said Tony.
"First of all, any fun this could potentially be will be squashed the moment the two of you start competing against each other. Remember the tie dye business?" asked Mona. Both Tony and Angela looked at one another with guilty expressions on their faces.
"My point exactly. C'mon kids, let's leave these two stiffs alone with their 'fun'. How about we go see a movie?" asked Mona. Samantha and Jonathan grabbed their stuff and headed out the door with Mona, leaving Tony and Angela alone in the living room.
"Mother's wrong you know! We can do this without it being a competition. It will be fun! And there's another benefit of it just being us…" she said as she grabbed his hand and pulled him under the mistletoe. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him for a kiss. He responded by pulling her flush against him and intensifying the kiss. Their arms found each other's backs and began moving up and down, pulling at their shirts. Finally, they came up for air and pulled apart.
"Now that's a Christmas tradition I can get used to!" laughed Tony. "C'mon Angela- let's get started in the kitchen! We will each get to make one and then we will force the family to judge them when they get back- punishment for ditching us! I'll make us some hot chocolate too!" said Tony as he gathered the grocery bags and walked into the kitchen, Angela close behind.
Tony laid the ingredients on the kitchen counter, separating everything into two piles.
"Okay! First we need to make the icing. Angela, get out three eggs and I'll get the cream of tartar and confectioners sugar. We are only using the egg whites. The key is going to be to get the right consistency to make sure it holds the graham crackers and candy" said Tony.
Angela went and got the eggs. She couldn't help but think back to one of the first times they were together in the kitchen, preparing for Thanksgiving. She smiled as she remembered smashing the eggs into Tony's hands.
"What are you smiling about over there Angela? Thinking of smashing some more eggs in my hands?" laughed Tony.
"How did you know that's what I was thinking about?" laughed Angela.
"Great minds think alike! And I was thinking about how much fun we have in the kitchen and it really all started there. That was one of the first times I allowed myself to think of you as more than my boss, as someone I could imagine being with, someone…" he started to say.
"Like Meryl Streep?" laughed Angela. "Yeah just like Meryl Streep! Although, I don't know if she's as good a kisser as a certain someone else…" he said as he leaned over to kiss Angela.
Tony continued to get the icing ready. Angela was tasked with unwrapping the candy, something they both thought she could handle, minus test tasting each type. Once they were done, they set everything out on the kitchen table.
"Okay Angela! On your mark, get set, decorate some gingerbread houses!" shouted Tony.
They both began to set up the sides of the houses. Angela cracked the first wall and had to try again. Tony was able to adhere two sides together, but as soon as he tried the third side, it all came crashing down, causing him to not so softly curse in Italian. Angela tried again to get her sides to stay up. Icing was literally everywhere- all over the table, their hands, their clothing and even their hair. After about twenty minutes, they both gave up, tossing their sad, broken half dilapidated houses in the garbage.
"How do people make these things? It's easier running an advertising agency than it is to building that thing!" she shouted.
"The people at the store made it sound so easy! 'Even a child can do it!' The only child who could make this is Julia Child!" shouted Tony.
"I guess Mother and the kids had the right idea…" Angela said remorsefully.
"Hey wait a minute! What if we tried this together? I think the problem was that we needed more hands to hold up the sides until the icing dried. We still have more graham crackers. Let's build one together!" said Tony with a smile spreading across his face.
"Okay let's do this!" said Angela.
They each grabbed a side and some icing. This time, they held the sides up together, allowing for the icing to take hold and solidify. They were able to get all four sides up before they attached the roof. With each piece they built, they got closer and closer together, until they were again flush up against each other.
While Angela was holding the roof in place, Tony carefully moved some of her hair off her face that had fallen across her eyes. Their eyes met in a passionate gaze that soon turned into a passionate kiss. Angela let go of the roof and wrapped her arms around Tony's neck. The roof wasn't yet sturdy enough and collapsed in on itself, taking all of the walls down with it. They both stopped momentarily to look at the collapsed gingerbread house and started hysterically laughing.
"This just isn't our thing is it Tony?" she managed to say through their laughter.
"No it isn't is it Angela? Oh well… we tried…" he said as he pulled her in closer, continuing their new Christmas tradition.